Unease currently marks the atmosphere at the Federal Polytechnic Mubi, where allegations of corruption has been levelled against the Chairman of the Governing Council, Babagana Anjimi.
The Joint Action Congress, JAC, of the polytechnic has had to rise in defence of the Council chair, describing as baseless and malicious the petition detailing the allegations.
The JAC which comprises Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics, Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Polytechnics and Non-academic Staff Union, told a news briefing in Yola at the weekend that the petition by a body calling itself Concerned Citizens alleging frivolity in the management of finances of the institution is sheer mischief.
In the joint press briefing at the Yola Campus of the Polytechnic led by the polytechnic ASUP Chairman, Kadala Bandi, the three unions urged all the relevant authorities and the general public to treat the petition as a mere fabrication of a faceless group.
Media Talk Africa gathered that one Mohammed Aliyu, said to be a human rights lawyer, had in the petition asked the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other related Offences Commission, ICPC, to investigate the expenditures of the polytechnic Governing Council.
The three unions under JAC described the petition as having been concocted out of the figment of the imagination of the peddlers.
The ASUP chairman, reading from the joint press briefing text, said, “We can boldly state that the Council has never overstepped its bounds, rather they have operated within the ambit of the law establishing it.
“Perusing through the write up, one can clearly see the lack of knowledge of the operations of the Governing Council in the polytechnics by the authors of the purported petition.”
Kadala Bandi added that a clear example of the lies of the petition can be seen in an item where the petitioners wrongly alleged that the Council interfered in academic and administrative processes, being processes which the Council has authority over.
